To say it is audacious is an understatement. Any readers who are familiar with the correspondence I’ve had with Mr McCartney will understand my annoyance. You can follow the story and far right opinions of this Tory bigot by searching “Karl McCartney MP” in the top right of this page.

by Karl McCartney

Suffice to say Mr McCartney made his feelings perfectly clear the last time I had cause to contact him. He refused to communicate with me unless I removed the ‘derogatory’ comments I had made in this blog. Shortly afterwards he was officially warned by IPSA regarding the insulting comments he made in emails to their staff; suffering the embarrassment of making a parliamentary apology. Still, when you’re desperate for votes you’ll try anything……

What has Karl done for Lincoln……?

As far as I able to tell from monitoring Karl McCartney’s activities; nothing. His record on job creation is good; if you’re his wife. She landed a £40k/py job as his part-time Constituency Secretary. He’s had nice days out at the expense of Japan International Tobacco; a cause close to Karl’s heart and not in any way designed to influence his parliamentary vote on tobacco advertising or packaging. There’s not a whole lot to report really. He’s jumped on the predictable bandwagon of the eastern bypass which has been imminent since the 1970s and the renewable energy bus, which stops in Lincolnshire by a pure quirk of geographical convenience.

So, when you read this Karl it’ll come as no surprise how I feel. The only person I know who has done well over the last 5 years is you, your wife and your businesses.

I feel I should point out that the “self-obsessed, extreme left wing propaganda website”, 38 Degrees, who you accuse of thinking for your constituents, as they are too inarticulate to express their own views, has a larger membership in your constituency than your majority and I would be careful whom I insult in the future……

Somehow I feel your ‘Happy New Year’ could soon be coming to an abrupt end in May but at least you’ll have the one year salary handshake to get by on till you can find another job more suited to your bullish lack of personality and absence of manners……

‘The indoctrination of children into religion has never been such an important issue……’

In the 20th and 21st century science has given us overwhelming proof that ‘God’ was, and still is, the first and worst explanation for the existence of the Universe. In every area from traditional science to new techniques in analysing text, ‘holy’ books have been discredited. Unfortunately, this has failed to end religion which means the problem of indoctrinating children continues unabated. The very idea of indoctrinating a child is in my opinion abhorrent and is no different to a paedophile’s grooming. Children have the capacity to learn at an astonishing rate; it’s evolution’s answer to survival; hijacked by religion……

Since 9/11 a whole generation have been raised during the purported ‘war on terror’ and the sound of gunfire has become the lullaby they hear as they try to sleep. Their nightmares must be unimaginably horrific. The seemingly arbitrary nature of who is attacked simply adds to the problem. Let’s pretend that 9/11 happened according to the official narrative. A Saudi planned and paid for it; Saudis carried it out. But Afghans and Iraqis bore the brunt of Americas’ retaliation. The search for one man cost 750,000 innocent lives and displaced millions of others. Suddenly it is not so hard to see how radicalisation can happen……

Jessey Creesey

Religious education shouldn’t even be a lesson. We don’t teach Alchemy, Creationism or Voodoo so why are we teaching our children religious nonsense. It serves no useful purpose in seeking employment and perpetuates division. You can knock the cultural differences and inequality of Islam but bombing the fuck out of a selected few because of a fanatical minority is not productive, unless you happen to profit from the Military Industrial Complex. Saudis jail women for driving, beat them for being with a man they are not related to, stone people to death and behead people; the very behaviour condemned when ISIS/ISL/IS do it. The plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis is another example. So why aren’t the bombs falling on the Saudis and Israelis; the same reason, money……

This selective ‘war on terror’ will never stop until the radicalised Christian fundamentalists take a good look in the hypocritical mirror. But that’s the idea, ‘a war without end’ as the neo-cons call it and the radicalised Muslims are a convenient tool to perpetuate the scaremongering…..

I’m ashamed to be British. For that matter, I’m ashamed to be a Human Being……

I noticed the mainstream press have been bringing inner city pollution in UK cities under the spotlight. To bring the figures within ‘safe’ limits the ‘expert’ on the news suggests we walk & cycle to work, tax diesel vehicles & turn off the lights when leaving a room. If, & it’s a big if, global warming is totally man-made, the action being taken is akin to pissing on a forest fire. However, the ‘green’ taxes being levied on us all are massively disproportionate when making a comparison against the effect they are having in reducing CO2 emissions.

I did an astonishing complicated calculation on the back of a fag packet that just happened to be to hand and came up with the following conclusion: If we are paying taxes to combat CO2 emissions, Her Majesty’s Treasury will be distributing it amongst the myriad of measures put in place to that end. Of course monies allocated to the treasury are distributed as the Chancellor, Gideon Osborne, sees fit. Many of the measures put in place and the funds allocated to them are a dismal failure, such as the home insulation scheme and similar projects which have not been taken up by the public, leaving a surplus of cash which has doubtless been used to give the impression that the economy is performing far better than is apparent to most of us. Meanwhile, the ‘big six’ energy companies profits have quadrupled from £230 million in 2009 (when the recession began), to £1.2 billion in 2013.

The reason that all attempts to reduce the CO2 emissions have nothing whatsoever to do with climate change is because Global warming is an industry and industries have one objective; to return profits to shareholders, not to save the planet. A function which I’m sure it is achieving because if you happen to be Siemens, or for that matter any other of the multitude of companies offering to smear your roof with ugly, inefficient PV cells, the Government are positively throwing money in your direction.

Finally, the figures for CO2 reduction laid out in the Kyoto agreement show our country to be 25% under the required quantities. This is nonsense at best and/or an accounting manipulation of the sort Lehman Brothers would be proud. The calculations for CO2 emissions fail to take into account the vast CO2 footprint created by imported goods on their journey from the far east, which by sea is somewhere around 8,000 miles (90% of UK imports arrive by sea). The same applies to the gas which we burn in power generation and domestically; again the CO2 from the journey is excluded. Another accounting trick is to remove CO2 in proportion to wind, water and privately generated PV electricity. But this is another deception. Because power stations cannot simply be turned on and off with the flick of a switch, even when green energy is being fed into the system, the gas and coal power stations continue to pump out CO2.

Politicians have done what politicians do, and do well; they have turned global warming into a business opportunity, taxing the public, rewarding the industries with tax breaks and dining out with the lobbyist at the best restaurants at our expense. They have little, if any, interest in climate change and contrary to popular opinion there are many scientist who will not support the statement, ‘Global warming is man made’, because, like weather forecasting, the system is so complicated nobody knows for definite whether global warming is natural or partly assisted by man. Science is an evolving subject but it is, unfortunately, funded by governments so if you want that grant you are more likely to get it if you sign up…..

They don’t care about smoking, drugs or drinking

They don’t care about waging war on innocent people

They don’t care about starvation

They don’t care about human rights abuses, torture and dictators

They don’t care about you

They care about two things: money and themselves

They are worried about an uprising against their lies, that’s why they are ordering water canons

As we leave 2013 behind us we prepare to celebrate Christmas. Out come the tinsel and the glitter balls, in comes the tree and we send cards, but only to those who sent one to us last year in the spirit of Christmas. The shops are full of eager consumers, all vying to get the latest digital device and ticking off the long list of requirements from their nearest and dearest. The works Christmas party leaves its employees with a hangover and some embarrassing photographs, posted on social media sites for all to see. We stock up our cupboards with special treats, mince pies and the obligatory tin of Quality Streets from which the purple ones are first to go and the orange creams left for the late comers. This is pretty much the modus operandi of almost everyone, but amidst the frivolities those of you who are paying attention will have noticed the absence one fairly important detail: the birth of the alleged son of our Lord and our saviour, the baby Jesus, for whom this whole celebration is centred around. Unless you happen to be a gloating parent of a primary school child, the central raison d’être for Christmas will probably not have even entered your thoughts. It is also worth noting that the classical ‘nativity play’ stops just short of the point where King Herrod ruthlessly massacred ever male infant born within his kingdom, but the indoctrination has to lull its victims into a false sense of security before revealing the ‘catch 22’. The hell and damnation can be woven in at a later date, once we have allowed our children to believe in the complete omnipotent nature of ‘god’s’ existence……

Christmas, along with Easter, Valentines’ Day, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, to name but a few, is nothing more than a commercial opportunity for the multi-nationals to generate sales.

Unless you are a devout Christian, in which case you need to get with the program, and then take advantage of the time you have been off work and get drunk, but have a re-think on some of your other actions.

Your kids don’t need anymore mind-numbing computer games and why buy so much food that you’ll still be finding out of date Christmas fodder in your cupboards in July 2014……

The Alternative……

By all means buy your closest friends a token gift; hand made with thought speaks volumes. Most people would appreciate a bottle of £5 plonk and the ridiculous game of only buying for the people who bought for you last year is hardly in the spirit of Christmas. I can’t think of anything more satisfying than receiving a card explaining how you’ve donated the money that would have paid for your gift to a charity that cares for the hundreds of thousands of orphaned, displaced and starving people who are only in that position because of US and UK foreign policy. Four million, that’s 4,000,000,000 Syrians are currently in dire need of assistance for food, shelter and medical supplies. 870 million people are classed as malnourished. The displaced Palestinians are in need of help as they eek out an existence whilst the occupying Israeli forces continue to encroach on what little territory they have left despite dozens of UN resolutions against Israel who are in contravention of international law but continue to receive military assistance and hardware from the US and UK.

The majority of suffering in the ‘third world’ is as a direct result of the actions of the UK, US and the Netherlands’ historical desire to build empires. In the 19th century we killed the food supply for fun and now the only animals left can just about support safaries for the wealthy. Think of the difference your Christmas spending, which is meaningless to all but the devout practicing Christians, could make to the people of the world. I doubt whether the Prime Minister or his contemporaries will give the true meaning of Christmas even a passing thought as they rip into their presents on Christmas day. How long he can afford to keep his central heating on will not feature, nor will his electricity consumption, water bill, council tax and the endless other considerations that his minions are hard pressed to pay after the celebration of the birth of Christ. I doubt he will give a passing thought to the British troops who lost their lives needlessly in ‘the war on terror’, or to the devastated families they left behind. No, Christmas at the PMs will be all Champagne and laughter, as it will at Nick Cleggs’ and the others who are responsible for our suffering. What more could a detached upper-class Etonian under the control of the global elite wish for at Christmas……

May we all one day live in an equal secular society that makes no categorical judgement other than ‘member of the human race’, that takes only what is needed to live in a warm, sheltered, loving environment……

Make someone’s Christmas by sending your excessive, indulgent spending so they can sleep in shelter and drink clean water……

There cannot be a single person alive who hasn’t given a moment to think of Nelson Mandela, a rare human being

NELSON MANDELA1918 – 2013

that had more cause than most to show antipathy and bitterness toward his enemies and their twisted ideas. He didn’t……

None of us are able to know the innermost thoughts of Nelson Mandela, but from the day of his release he never spoke of revenge, restitution or redress; only truth, reconciliation and equality. Whenever he met an ‘old adversary’ he would look them straight in the eye and treated them as an equal. An action I don’t believe I would have been capable of. He never challenged a policy of which they may have been an architect, nor did he question their reasoning. The past was the past. All he ever displayed was a warm smile and offer the hand of friendship.

Nothing more need be said of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, thankfully now relieved of his suffering.

I delayed the obituary until today because there was bound to be a surge of opportunistic moments where heads of state posed for the media shaking hands erroneously with leaders whose names were being relayed to their security advisor to save them the embarrassment one feels at a cocktail party when left talking with some bint from ‘accounts’. All claimed moral equality with Mandela, remembering with fondness the day he made the ‘long walk to freedom’, which my recollection was five hours of live outside broadcasting of a dirt road with two white gates at its end.

I wonder if Mandela would have been in agreement with American foreign policy? Identify target over another sovereign territory; label him/her, a direct threat to the security of the homeland. Engage with a Hellfire missile killing all in the vehicle and any bystanders. I’m sure Mandela would have been in agreement over the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, where being outside of American jurist diction, it is okay to detain and torture political prisoners. ‘At least I had a trial’, he may have said in his softly spoken manner. A white trial, in a white court, in a white controlled land, trying native Africans with white laws.

If only Mrs Thatcher had held on just a bit longer so she too could have joined in with the apocryphal celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life. During apartheid she called Nelson Mandela a ‘terrorist’ and stated,’ We don’t do business with terrorists’. She did sycophantically meet Mandela after his release and exchanged pleasantries.

The truth of the matter is that most native South Africans just about manage to scrape a living from the land, that is of course unless you happen to be in ‘the club’, skimming millions from charity donations and doing lucrative deals with the Chinese, mining rare earth minerals on ancient tribal land. The Mandela Memorial was inevitable, as was the arrival of shallow politicians hoping to gain some credibility by their presence but the truth is, they fund and arm the ramshackle armies and conduct covert operations to stoke the fire. And, not forgetting of course, depriving Africans’ of the infrastructure they so desperately need, all under the guise of keeping global warming in check.

I’m sad for Nelson Mandela and his friends and family but face the fact; nothing has changed in South Africa any more than it has for the rest of humanity. 98% of the people hold 95% of the wealth and the control that comes with it. It would take a billion Nelson Mandelas to effect any change……

In a week in which we saw Russell Brand become the guest editor of The New Statesman I put on hold my own piece about the American War Machine and the obscene way in which what has become known as ‘The Iron Triangle’, where the policy makers have a stake in the wars they create, to credit Russell for his albeit leftfield work.

In an interview with Jeremy Paxman tonight he was the first to admit that he didn’t have the magic remedy, but that the status quo will inevitably lead to a revolution. In his larger than life way he pointed out the things that the populous are all too aware of even if they lack the clever rhetorical skills to express themselves. Brand was simply pointing out that the political system we have in this country gets less transparent every time a politician uses the word and that what we still have is an ‘old boy’ network. Access to power is limited to those who already have it either by who they know or heredity. They have no interest in stopping their corrupt friends from stashing the unimaginable amounts of money they have well away from the Tax Man, nor will they use the power granted to them to force the utility companies to reduce the cost to the average household. Not since the end of World War II has the gap between rich and poor been greater and this has nothing to do with a limited amount of total cash flow as we watch the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

There sits a kind of middle ground, where those who were lucky enough to have a small stake in the game when the Blair Government came to power, are just keeping up with the game but, as their budgets get squeezed tighter and tighter, as they inevitably will, their eyes too will be opened, and, whether you like the style of Russell Brand, you know what he is saying is true. Nothing short of a revolution, in which the proletariat seizes power from the ‘old boy’ network, no matter how bloody that event is, is the only way to rebalance the scales of fairness……

In an act of extraordinary hypocrisy the ex-Anglian Water boss, Jonson Cox, who is now the Chairman of the industry

regulator Ofwat, drew attention to the “morally questionable” tax structures that allowed his prior employer to pay just £1.6m in Corporation Tax between 2004 and 2010 whilst he was in charge. Cox left Anglian Water in 2010 with a payout of £9.5m, an amount that his UK call centre staff would have taken 575 years to earn (before income tax) and in excess of 1500 years for Anglian Water’s overseas staff.

Love Every Penny

Anglian Water serves over five million customers from Grimsby in the north to Basildon in the south, and is owned by Canadian and Australian pension and infrastructure funds. The company’s immediate parent undertaking is Anglian Water Services Overseas Holdings Ltd, a company registered in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven. The company accounts for Anglian Water Services Overseas Holdings Ltd state that it has no employees and is administered by the UK division of the company; so nothing fishy going on there then.

An Ofwat spokesperson said: “As our chair, Jonson Cox is using his insight into the sector to shine a light on what companies do, and asking challenging questions to ensure that the legitimacy of the sector is maintained in the eyes of customers.” Customers have seen their bills rise by 64% in the last 10 years whilst their wages have risen by an average of just 28%. Approximately 30% of water charges are profit compared with just 9% of other utilities.

A spokesman for Anglian Water denied that it engaged in tax avoidance. “Our corporation tax bill is reduced by specific government incentives and deferred, not avoided. This is allowed by the government to encourage long-term investment in infrastructure and jobs.” One would have assumed that as a water and waste water company the “infrastructure” was an integral part of the business and should not be subject to “Government incentives”. The so called investment in jobs has seen back office administration moved to India where the staff are paid 1/3 of their UK counterparts.

Obviously, Anglian Water values its’ customer base, even though their customer base has no choice which company supplies it with water. They also employ customer profiling to identify those who may potentially have difficulty paying and automatically filter them into specially designed and more aggressive debt recovery cycle; all changes introduced whilst the new chairman of Ofwat was at the helm…….

The fact that Jonson Cox is now the Chairman of the regulator is a direct conflict of interests. Is a man who aggressively sought to maximise profits for shareholders whilst minimising tax liabilities fit to run the industry regulator. In his new position he should be seeking the best possible deal for hard pressed bill payers whilst balancing a healthy return for the country and the shareholders. Based on his prior modus operandi I suggest he is ‘not fit for purpose’, that is, of course, dependent upon your stake in the companies he regulates……

PART TWO: DIRTY TRICKS……

‘THE INSIDER’S GUIDE ON HOW TO BEAT THE SYSTEM……’

Phone calls to Anglian Water Customer Services appear on their bills as 0845 numbers. This means for the pleasure of making an enquiry you pay 10 pence per minute (more on mobile networks). For example: The Customer Service number is 08457 91 91 55. What they fail to tell you is that almost all of their 0845 numbers work by simply dialling 0800 instead, ie; 0800 91 91 55 gets you through to the same service at no cost. The same applies to almost all other Anglian Water numbers quoted as 0845……

Stalling tactics are mandatory as with all automated systems. When you get through and have been offered a choice of options so they can “Help get you through to the right department”, you’ll be asked to say, or enter on your telephone key pad, your 9 digit account number. DON’T, it doesn’t link to their computer system and the agent will ask for your account number or name and address to enable them to find your account. All of the Line Managers are perfectly aware that this is the case and no explanation was ever given as to why this was the case. Personally, I believe it is a delaying tactic to keep you in the queue without hanging up as this is one of the performance measures used by Ofwat to monitor call drop outs……

If you alone in a one bedroom flat you will use a very small amount of water. Anglian Water will not advise you of this fact, nor will they tell you that you do not have a meter and may be paying on the old Rateable Value system which could be costing you £500 per year. If you have a meter fitted and go on a low user tariff (Anglian Water call theirs ‘Solow’), this could reduce your bill by £400 per year. This information is buried in the usual small print or plethora of booklets you receive but they will not proactively seek to help you, so ask. If the meter is fitted and your bill worked out higher you are not obliged to use the metered supply. To go down this route; arrange to have a meter installed and once done, 2 months readings will let you know the result. I did this for a friend and reduced the bill from £560 per year to £63……

The customer profiling may determine the type of reminder you receive if your bill becomes overdue. The wording of these ‘special’ letters is more strongly worded than the standard reminder and is deliberately designed to pressure you into paying your bill quickly. Ethics aside, this letter may come from a company calling itself Frontier Debt Collections. If you search the net you will find that this is an ‘off the shelf’ program available to anyone and customisable. If you receive one of these letters, don’t panic. It holds no more weight than a standard reminder. If you call Frontier Debt Collections you are speaking to the normal Anglian Water Debt Recovery Team, which brings us nicely onto the final step.

Water is considered a basic human right and it cannot be disconnected from a domestic supply. It is important to keep this in mind when dealing with an outstanding bill or an ongoing bill which you are not able to afford. When prioritising your debts place water at the bottom. Anglian Water cannot fit a special meter that steals half of your money whenever you top up and they cannot cut off your supply. If you find yourself unable to meet your commitments, make Anglian Water an offer of £1 per week stating that you are aware this will not cover your usage and that you aware arrears will accrue. Then explain that you hope to rectify this situation as soon as your circumstances change. I am not advocating building up a huge debt with Anglian Water but they can afford to supply you whilst you may be having difficulty feeding yourself, so it’s worth bearing in mind……

As an ethical companyAnglian Water has one goal in mind; to return the maximum profit for its shareholders, not to help you, little old ladies, people with health problems, surviving on benefits or with language barriers. As a company they claim to ‘support’ the WaterAid charity. The amount of money donated from the company’s vast profits last year: NOTHING, ZITCH, NOT ONE PENNY. The only money that WaterAid receive comes from the charity work of people who work for the company (on their own time obviously), or from customers whose relative may have passed away leaving their account in credit by a small amount, which they choose to donate……